Conference on Internet Political Influence

While the 1996 election campaign will hardly be remembered for its visionary leaders, powerful slogans, meaningful promises or surprising results, there was one new and interesting element in the mix this year. On-line politics, e-mail and the world wide web were all used as an alternative means of communicating political information. It’s still unclear how the internet affected the outcome of the 96 Presidential and Congressional elections. And many questions remain on whether virtual politics are good for democracy, and whether the world wide web can revive civic involvement and voter participation. A conference to discuss these issues and the future of on-line politics was held last week in San Francisco. Pacifica National Affairs Correspondent Larry Bensky was there and has this report.